You make a darn good point there Jeff. I have seen a lot of lever gun guys work the action without taking thier finger off the trigger.
IMO people who buy into the line that only safe hunters carry a rifle without one in the chamber reminds me of the anti gun crowd always making the argument that you are ten times more likely to have a suicide or shooting in your home if there is a firearm present, but they never say that if a bad guy comes in and you are not armed and he is, you are about 100% more likely to get shot.( ie ,you are too stupid to own a firearm)
If someone doesn't trust themselves enough to know when they should open the action when crossing hazzards or such and can't depend on themselves to practice safe muzzle control, they shouldn't be handling a firearm at all, empty chamber or not.
BTW. If one ever threw gas on a fire they would know what WHOOSH sounded like.
If God wanted you to walk and carry things on your back, He would not have invented stirrups and pack saddles
